IT Chandigarh

Chandigarh: The anti-smoking drive of the Chandigarh Police seems to have gone up in smoke. The drive, which was launched with fanfare on July 15 to make Chandigarh the first smoke-free city in the country, is gradually losing steam.

Figures available from July 15 to October 31 reveal that the police booked 1,175 persons for violating the provisions of the Cigarette and other Tobacco Products Act, 2003. But only 15 violators have been prosecuted till date.

The number of persons booked for breaking the law is dismally low in October. A police officer said no serious effort was being made to enforce the law. It was only when senior officials asked to launch a drive, the policemen booked the violators.

In all, the police booked 108 shopkeepers for violating the law. Three out of the four police stations of the South sub-division, including Sectors 31, 36 and 39 police stations, have failed to catch a single shopkeeper violating the Act.

Roadside cigarette and tobacco products’ vendors continue to sell intoxicants to minors and some are running business near educational institutions. Their presence indicates that they are rarely fear policemen on beat duty.

During the first four months of the drive, the East sub-division of the Chandigarh Police booked a maximum number of persons (467) for smoking at public places. As many as 65 shopkeepers not complying with the provisions of the Act were also booked. At the South subdivision, 363 persons were booked.

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CHANDIGARH: Medieval ways and means of life at Mundigari village, 25 km from Karnal, first highlighted by TOI, witnessed drastic changes in villagers’ attitude within one-and-a-half months, courtesy efforts made by an NGO and district administration.

On Saturday, Niyaz Hasan, ex-sarpanch of the village said, “Within 45 days, about 30 families have bought new television sets.” People were now opening to changes happening around them, he said. However, he said, it wasn’t as though the whole village was “Talibanised” then. Due to pressure from certain quarters, the whole village had to abide by certain verbal edicts. A Karnal-based social worker, Raj Singh Chaudhary, said the district administration has started a cleanliness drive in the village. Also an educational awareness campaign has been taken up in the village after it came to light that not a single person has ever been employed as a government servant. The only woman, who was employed as an anganwadi worker, Jaiton, was given a compensatory job after her husband, who was in the army, died long ago.

Chaudhary said that about a dozen youths have recently filled up forms to take up jobs in Haryana police. Even CD players, radios sets and mobile sets have increased in the village during the past one month, sources said.

Earlier, deputy commissioner of Karnal, BS Malik and sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) RK Singh visited the village to see for themselves the state of affairs there. Talking to TOI, Malik however clarified, “I don’t think there is anything special about the village as regards sanitation. I had gone there after the monsoons, which was a kind of regular affair. For the cleanliness drive, the BDO concerned had visited the village.”

Source: The Times of India News Service

CHANDIGARH: Justice LN Mittal on Saturday adjourned hearing on the bail plea of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to February 12. The interim relief against arrest granted to the Dera head will continue till the said date.

The Dera head had also been asked to join and cooperate with investigations on December 8 when a special Punjab Police team will go to Sirsa to interrogate him.

The Dera head had moved the plea for pre-arrest bail in a case registered against him by Bathinda police. A case was registered against the Dera head for his alleged imitation of Guru Gobind Singh by wearing clothes resembling those of the Guru and also offering Jam-e-Insan to his followers at a ceremony.

The petitioner had averred during previous hearings that he had no intention of imitating the tenth Sikh Guru whom he held in great esteem and thus had done nothing to hurt the feelings of the Sikh community.

It was also averred that the FIR was registered against him due to politics of vendetta pursued by the present government in Punjab. The Dera head had also submitted that the present Akali-BJP regime was baying for his blood following media reports that the Dera had given the call to its followers to support the Congress during the last assembly poll.
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Chandigarh: A Team of West Bengal Police nabbed two youths from DAV College, Chandigarh, on the charges of impersonation, cheating and fraud, while they were appearing for the Common Admission Test (CAT), held today.

Gaurav Midha, a student of the NHPI Engineering College, Delhi and Narinder Singh, an Oil India Corporation employee and engineer from Punjab University, were appearing for CAT 2007 examination at the DAV College, Chandigarh. While Narinder is from Sonepat district in Haryana, Gaurav is a resident of Phase X, Mohali. The two were appearing on behalf of somebody else.

According to Ashish Bhattacharya, in-charge of admissions at IIM, Calcutta, the institute received some forms, which had certain discrepancies, from Chandigarh — one of the seven centres under IIM, Calcutta.

The West Bengal police team, comprising of an ASP, Inspector and a Sub-Inspector today conducted raids at various centres in Chandigarh on the basis of information received by their team at South 24-Parganas district, West Bengal.

“A case was registered at the South 24-Parganas police station, and raids were conducted in Chandigarh in follow up to the case there. The case was registered on the basis of complaints lodged by the authorities of IIM, Calcutta. The authorities alleged that during the scrutiny of forms, certain duplications and discrepancies were noticed. For instance, there were pictures of the same person on different forms, with different addresses. In such exams, students have this tendency of filling multiple forms to get better seats, or for examination centres of their choice, etc. The raids were planned and the police team managed to nab two persons in this regard,” said ASP (Central) Madhur Verma.
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